Author Archives: Dave Clegg

In an online interview, Olaf Michael Ostertag, a member of the German socialist party Die Linke , speaks with Professor Michael Howard, co-ordinator of USBIG in the U.S. and Punita who immigrated from India to Germany a decade ago. While Michael Howard has long been associated with the Basic Income movement in the U.S. and abroad, Punita has only recently become aware of the

This paper represents a massive undertaking by both University of Melbourne Australia faculty and an independent agency called the the Brotherhood of St. Laurence dedicated to social Justice. It looks at a collection of BI pilot projects, as well as other projects which can be considered close approximations of a BI, from around the world. Government projects which have been

Scott Santens. Credit to: Singularity Bros. Scott Santens, writer and long time UBI advocate, speaking at the Davos World Economic Forum 2017, views the Alaska Permanent Fund as a foundational aspect for the funding for a Universal Basic Income – a UBI. Santens, and a growing number of people all over this planet are coming to the conclusion that something

The 2017 publication Europe’s New Social Reality: the Case Against Universal Basic Income by Sage and Diamond – which can be downloaded from Policy Network online – cites an earlier 2015 Policy Network report which was most concerned about a “growing social, economic and political divergence” developing between the EU nations. In particular, the 2015 report suggested that slow economic

The 2017 World Economic Forum – WEF – being held at Davos Switzerland is where some of the world’s most influential figures meet to discuss the state of the world and, in particular, the economic concerns and opportunities that lie ahead. This year, Jamie Dimon CEO of JP Morgan offered his support for a negative tax – NT – as

A CBC news report offers a clarion call regarding the increasing demand being placed upon Canadian food banks who are attempting to address the hunger and nutritional needs of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens. Surely there is no better reason for a BI than the need for food banks in one of the richest nations on the planet? Food Banks Canada,

UC sociology professor Fred Block, and CUNY political science professor Francis Fox Piven, author of Challenging Authority, are scathing in their indictment of “…archaic economic ideas…” in the online opinion journal article on The Nation. Yet they also insist that a Basic Income – an idea as old as the Capitalistic system that dominates the world today – is

Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has issued its latest and apparently final press release outlining its long awaited Basic Income pilot project slated to begin Jan 1st, 2017. Near the end of the first year the project will be assessed for the feasibility of a second year as well. This project will be narrowly focused on a small,

In the Online Project Syndicate economist, academic and former Greek finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, succinctly analyses the pros and cons of a Basic Income and cuts right to the heart of the issue, how to fund it! Taxation is too controversial and the amounts involved are staggering. However Varoufakis suggests a fresh, creative solution. Every stock market Initial

Rutger Bregman spares so-called liberals and progressives no punches in the online Guardian 8/19/16. Bregman castigates the Left for its pathetic failure in not seizing the moment after the 2008 U.S. “financial crisis… borne of blind faith in market wisdom and an utter lack of public oversight”. Bregman acknowledges that the Left has a long history of championing for the